Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed

October Unemployment Figures

31 Oct 2018

On October 31st, 2018 the Central Statistics Office published the Monthly Unemployment figures for October 2018. 126,400 people were unemployed, a decline of 29,400 on the same month in 2017. The overall Monthly Unemployment Rate (MUR) was 5.3%, down 1.3% on October 2017. The previous time the MUR was 5.3% was between the months of December 2007 and February 2008. At that stage between 124,400 and 124,900 people were unemployed.

Looking at these figures from an age perspective there were 93,600 unemployed people aged between 25 and 74 years, and their MUR was 4.4%. A year ago these figures stood at 118,000 and 5.6% respectively. The previous time this age groups MUR stood at 4.4% was in April 2008, and at that stage there were 83,600 people unemployed.

For the younger age group, people aged 15-24 years of age, their MUR was 12%, which brings the rate back to late spring / early summer of 2008. At that stage there were between 50,600 and 54,800 young people unemployed. In October, 2018 there were 32,800 young people unemployed, a figure last seen in mid-2002, at that stage young people’s unemployment rate stood at 7.9%.